The following lists of words misspelled in student papers were compiled a few years ago by New York State. Of the more than 31,000 misspelled words gathered by English teachers throughout the country, 407 were misspelled more frequently than others. These words are arranged in the table below from left to right down in descending order of difficulty. Study the list and test yourself by having someone read the words aloud to you so that you can try to spell them without looking at them.

* Although some dictionaries accept the spelling alright, most list it as nonstandard usage. Most college teachers regard alright as a misspelling.